San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-10-29
0VERW0RKED BRAINS.
A POINT AT WHICH LABOR CEASES
TO BE STRENGTHENING.

One OF the Earliest Indications OF Brain
EHhaustIon-steps Toward the Verge
of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Heaped Upon the
Minds of the Young.
There is such thing as mind strengthening
work. In truth it is, as every Psychologist
knows, only by work, minds or, more cor
rectly speaking, brains can be strengthened
in their growth and naturally developed.
The exercise of those Genters of the nervous
system, whose functions what we call con-
seriousness and intellect are associated is
as essential 10 their nutrition as activity
is to the healthy growth OF any other part
of the organism, whether nervous or mus
cular. Every part of the living body is de
veloped, and enjoys vitality, by the law
which makes the appropriation Of food de-
pendent upon and commensurate with the
amount Of work IL does. IL feeds in proper
ton as its works, as truly as it works in pro-
portion as it feeds. This canon Of organic
life is the foundation of those estimates
which Psychologists form when they compute
the value Of food in weight lifting power. Ii
is, however, necessary to recognize that,
although these propositions are true in the
abstract, they need the introduction of a new
integer or combining power before any sum
of results can be worked out
We know that food Is practically Just as
truly outside the body after II has been eaten,
digested, and even taken in the blood current,
as it is when it lies on the table Nutrition is
a tissue function, and its performance de-
ponds on the appetite and feeding power,
which is something different from the organic
need, of the tissue with which the nutrient
fluid is brought into contact Again, any
particular part Of the organism may be so
exhausted by work that it has not power
enough left TO feed. 1t is matter Of the
highest practical moment that this fact
should be recognized. There is undoubtedly
point at which work ceases TO be strength
ing and becomes exhausting, self exhausting
and self destructive so far as the particular
issue in activity is concerned.
LEFT UTTERLY PowERLEss.
Work may be carried too far In fact to
such point that not only the last reserve Of
power for action, but the ultimate unit, so to
say, of the force Of the nutrition, which is. as
we now believe, identical with the force of
general activity, may be expended in work
and the organism left so utterly powerless
that its exhausted tissues can no longer ap-
propriate the food supplied or placed within
their normal reach. We have said that it is
necessary this should be understood. 1t has a
special bearing on the question of brain work
in childhood and incidence
Just as extreme weakness and faintness Of
the body as a whole produce restlessness and
loss of control, so extreme exhaustion Of the
brain produces mental agitation and loss of
healthy self consciousness. This is how and
why the "overworked" become deranged.
One of the earliest indications, or symptoms,
of brain exhaustion is commonly irritability;
then CONS sleeplessness of the sort which
seems to consist in inability to cease thinking
either of particular subject or things in gem
eral; next, the mental unrestful or uncon-
trollable thought gets the better of the will,
even during the ordinary hours of wakeful-
ness and activity, which is a step further to-
ward the verge of insanity than the mere per-
sistence of thought at the hour of sleep
this way lies madness; and, finally the think
ing faculty, or, as we say the imagination,
gets the better of the will and asserts suprem-
acy for its pbantoms, those of sight or hear
ing being the most turbulent and dominant
which happen to be most commonly used in
intellectual work, and therefore most devel-
oped by the individual cerebrum-this is
madness,
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
Such is the story of overwork Of the brain
or mind; and it is easy to see that at any stage
of the progress from bad to worse the will
may be overpowered and the Judgment per-
verted in such manner as TO impel the victim
of this mind trouble to seek refuge in death,
or to so disorder his consciousness that he sup
poses himself to be acting in obedience to
some just and worthy bshest when he COM
mits an act of self destruction or does some
thing in the doing Of which he accidentally
dies. Such, in the MAN, is the story Of sui
eide from overwork.
What, then, can be the excuse pleadable by
those who heap on the brains of the young or
adolescent such burdens of mind labor and
worry as exhaust their very faculties of self
help and leave them prey to the vagaries Of
q starved brainf We pity the suffering of
those shipwrecked sailors who, after exposure
in an open boat, perhaps without food, for
hours or days, Ego mad" and raving of feast
and pleasures, the anttheses of their actual
experience, fall on each other or throw
themselves overheard. Have we no pity for
brains dying of lack of food because we have
compelled them to expend their very last
unit of force in work, and now they are dis
traught in the act Of dyingl
1t may be a sublime ideal, that Of q highly
educated people; but if it should happen that
the realization of this beautiful dream Of our
philosophic reformers can only be achieved
by the slaughter of the weak, it will scarcely
console the national conscience to reflect
that, after all, "the survival of the fittest" is
the law Of nature.-Lancet.